Hang On
by IAmTooAddictedToHarryPotter
Summary: Lily and James watch helpless from above as their son is sent to live with the Dursleys, where he is beaten, starved, raped and forced to work as something even lower than a slave. But when Sirius arrives they might have a way to get back to their son and give him the childhood he was deprived of. Warning: graphic-ish abuse, neglect, rape, self harm.
1. Chapter 1

"Lily!" exclaimed James, "I don't know how it happened, but Harry's taken down You-Know-Who!"

"What? How do you know that?"

"I found this weird mirror thing and you can use it to watch those still among the living. I'm just waiting to see what happens to Harry – what if no one finds him? What if he's left there all by himself -"

"James" Lily interrupted, "I arranged for Sirius to come and visit today. You were looking a bit down and I know you hate being cooped up, I thought seeing him would help cheer you up."

"You're the best" said James, "too bad I won't get to see him though."

"Yeah. Let's get back to that mirror thing you mentioned"

James took his wife's hand and led her to a large house. A plaque on the door was emblazoned 'James and Lily Potter'. He led her through a large, cozy-looking lounge room and up the stairs. Entering a large master bedroom they turned. Two doors faced them, one leading to a huge en suite and one leading to a smaller sitting room. There was a blue couch and a large silver coffee table. The top of the table was adjustable and it had already been adjusted so that it was almost vertical to the gorgeous hardwood flooring.

"Here it is." said James, taking his seat on the couch and motioning that Lily sit by him.

James tapped his wand on the shiny surface and said "show me Harry Potter."

* * *

 _Harry was still sitting in the cot, his tiny hands grasping the railings. On the floor lay the body of Lily Potter, and the boy was staring at her, apparently waiting for her to move, to show signs of life._

* * *

"Where's You-Know-Who? I thought you said he was dead?"

"Well, after he killed you he tried to kill Harry, but the killing curse bounced off him and hit him full on – he never saw it coming. Then he sort of disappeared, but I'm positive he's dead."

"I think he's gone, but he'll be back. Hopefully not for a long time."

* * *

 _A motorbike sounded outside, followed by the thud of two feet hitting the ground, apparently having jumped from a height._

* * *

"Sirius is here." stated James unnecesarily.

* * *

 _There was a knock at the door, followed by the creak of the hinge. The viewpoint moved downstairs, where Sirius was pushing the door open cautiously._

" _James! No! No! This can't be right! James! Wake up! Please! You can't leave me!" sobbed Sirius, fat tears rolling rapidly down the length of his handsome face._

* * *

James allowed a few tears to roll down his own face.

"He hasn't cried this much since he got that howler in his first year y'know – disgracing him from his family. He was a laughing stock for the Slytherins."

"Oh, James!" said Lily, wiping the tears from under his eyes, "Don't cry. I'm sure everything will work out."

* * *

 _Sirius stood up, his features marred with unbearable grief._

" _I'm so sorry Prongs. I failed you. This is all my fault."_

 _He continued into the lounge room, mostly to avoid stepping over his friend's body._

 _On the coffee table he found two wands, which he immediately recognised as Lily and James's._

 _He picked up his best friend's wand, turning it over carefully in his thin (though not as thin as James's) fingers._

" _Coward." sneered Sirius, "Attacking an unarmed man. Makes sense, James could have beaten him in a duel anyday"_

 _Sirius pocketed both wands._

 _He heard a scared cry from upstairs._

" _Thank goodness one of you is alive." he muttered, sprinting to the staircase and taking the stairs three at a time._

 _The first thing he saw apon entering the room was Lily._

" _Not Lily too!" he said._

 _He crossed the room in a few long strides and peered into the cot, making sure his little Prongslet was okay._

" _Pa-foo, Pa-foo" cooed the child, holding out his chubby arms to the older man._

" _Harry! Thank goodness you're alright! Though not completely unscathed ..." said Sirius, noticing the newly formed scar on the boy's forehead.. He lifted the child up into his arms, quickly checking for any other injuries._

 _Harry snuggled into Sirius, cooing the name he'd come to know the man by._

" _Looks like it's just you and me, Prongslet" he whispered, "let's get out of here."_

* * *

"See, James? Everything is going to be okay."

James wiped his eyes, nodding slightly, "Sirius thinks this is his fault."

"I know. I'm sure he'll come around eventually."

"Wait! We didn't tell Dumbledore that we changes secret-keepers! He'll think Sirius betrayed us! This is awful!" fretted James.

"Everything will turn out okay. Sirius didn't do it and if he keeps his head and talks reasonably with Professor Dumbledore he can't possibly be accused"

"You're right," said James, rubbing his eyes, "I just can't believe we're not going to be there for him"

"Yes, but I'm sure he'll be just fine with Padfoot and Moony raising him."

"Unless they spoil him. You know how they are, or how Padfoot is, anyway."

* * *

" _Hagrid! What're you doing here?" said Sirius, looking up from the small child now almost asleep in his arms._

" _Wha' 'appened 'ere? Where's Lily an' James? Is it true they're-"_

" _Yes." Said Sirius, immediately feeling sick with having admitted it. He hadn't even realised he'd begun to cry again as he clung on to Harry for support._

" _Wha' 'appened?"_

 _Sirius took a deep breath and recounted the story. By the time he was done he was sobbing so hard he could hardly talk._

" _There, there" said Hagrid, patting the grieving man on the back so hard it was all he could do not to fall forward and crush Harry._

" _So, what're you doing here?" he asked once he'd stemmed his crying enough to._

" _Pr'fess'r Dumbledore sent me ter get little Harry 'ere"_

" _Why?" asked Sirius, completely not on board with letting go of one of the few things he still had left._

" _He said I were ter take 'im ter his relatives. Said he's ter live with them 'til he's ready fer Hogwarts"_

" _His relatives? I'm his godfather! Why can't I take care of him? Does Dumbledore not think I can handle it?"_

* * *

"No! Harry can't live with your sister and that awful man! Who knows what they might do to him!"

"I'm sure 'Tuney won't let anything happen" she gave her confidences.

* * *

" _Alright." said Sirius, "If you're going to take Harry take my bike as well. You'll get there faster"_

" _Really, yeh mean it?"_

" _Of course. Can I … can I say goodbye first though?"_

" _Yeah, course yeh can" Hagrid lumbered away to inspect the large motorcycle._

" _Harry, stay strong, please. I love you, Prongslet. Don't let the Muggles get to you. I'll always be thinking of you. I'll come and get you the moment Dumbledore gives me the clear, and he will, I'll make sure of that. One day you'll understand what your parents have done for you. I don't trust that pair of Muggles in the slightest. Don't let them break you Harry. Please. I don't know if I could live with myself if they hurt you in any way. One day you'll make your parents proud, like I never could make mine. You are loved, Harry. Never forget that. I love you. Goodbye."_

 _Hagrid came back over and Sirius kissed Harry on the forehead, lingering for as long as he could with the comfortable weight of the boy in his arms. He never wanted to let go._

" _Come on, give 'im here. I'm sure yeh'll see 'im again one day, Sirius. Good luck"_


	2. Chapter 2

Lily and James watched in silence as Professors Dumbledore and McGonagall spoke, and Harry was laid on the doorstep with a letter.

At seven pm a house-elf brought them potato and bacon soup, though James insisted (when the elf was out of the room) that Lily's was way better.

The good thing about this alternate reality-dreamland place (the correct term would be Wizard Heaven) was that they never needed to sleep or use the toilet.

* * *

 _Petunia woke up at six am, as she had been doing every morning without fail since she was six. Heading to the kitchen she quickly noticed the glass milk cartons sitting in an empty tray on her impeccably clean bench._

 _She pulled her nightgown tighter around herself and picked up the tray, intent on removing them from her perfect home._

 _She didn't notice the baby until she looked down to make sure the cartons were all sitting perfectly straight._

 _She screamed._

" _What's the matter, Poppet?" called a voice groggily from the top of the stairs._

" _There's a baby on my porch!" she screeched, effectively waking said child up. Harry began to cry from both hunger and lack of attention._

" _Shut up." scolded Petunia, nudging the child with her foot as if he was a rotten apple core. The letter fell to the ground._

 _Petunia snatched the letter up. Ripping it open she read it through._

" _My, my, isn't this an opportunity!" said Vernon, when it was his turn to read the letter, "Two hundred quid a month! And straight from your good for nothing sister's vault too."_

" _Won't we have to waste the money caring for the little demon, though?"_

" _No. Give it Dudders's old clothes, it can sleep in the cupboard, only feed it scraps off our plates and have it working around the house as soon as it can walk. Soon enough you'll never have to work again."_

" _True. But it's from my freak sister. It'll be a freak too, I can just feel it!"_

" _We'll beat the freakishness right out of it. Soon enough it won't even want to breathe without permission, let alone use it's disgusting freakish powers"_

" _Fine."_

* * *

"No no no no no! This can't be happening!" exclaimed Lily.

"We have to get back to him!"

"We can't!"

"Padfoot had better hurry about gaining Harry's custody, or there may be nothing left for him to take custody of!"

"No! Don't say that. Harry's strong. He'll push through and come out on top. I'm sure of it."

* * *

" _Shut up, Freak!" They'd already come to the conclusion not to use the boy's name. He was not to be treated like a normal person._

" _Just throw it in the cupboard. It'll shut up eventually." said Petunia._

 _Vernon nodded his approval and picked up the one year old by the ankle, hoisting him into the air and dangling him away from his fat body._

 _He stomped into the hallway, flung open the door of the small cupboard, dropped the child in and purposely slamming the door on the child's hand, leaving him there, screaming, with the ends of his fingers poking out the door._

" _It still hasn't shut up." said Petunia, when her husband returned._

" _It will learn to." said Vernon menacingly._

* * *

"That bastard!" exclaimed James.

"My poor, poor baby!" sobbed Lily, putting her hand against the surface where Harry's small arm was.

* * *

 _Harry cried and cried until he could cry no more and still no one came to his rescue. He didn't understand. He'd never been treated like this before._

* * *

"And to think I used to love Petunia!" fumed Lily, "She's no sister of mine. She doesn't deserve that title"

"I want to bloody strangle that Dursley man! Harry's bloody one year old! What's he done bloody wrong to deserve this?"

* * *

 _Harry ended up stuck with his fingers in the door for five hours, until Petunia finally let his hand free. He couldn't feel anything but pain. The entire hand was black and blue and it had now swollen to about four times it's size._

* * *

"Oh Merlin, that's awful!"

* * *

 _He had no tears left and he hadn't eaten for over ten hours (since before his parents had died the previous day), he hadn't been able to sleep either, because of his hand. He was shaking from head to foot._

* * *

 **Author's Note:**

Hello! I hope you're enjoying this so far (or enjoying it as much as you can with the Dursleys existence, anyway). I've been going over this particular concept in my head for quite some time and so now I've finally decided to write it down and see what you guys think! Do you reckon it's worth continuing? Do you hate Vernon and Petunia yet? Are you looking forward to meeting Dudley in the next chapter? Is there anything I should add? Any improvements I should make? Do you hate it? Do you have any ideas for future chapters? Do you want to write something I could slip in the story somewhere? Does this story need to be scrapped altogether? Is it too cliche? Are my chapters too short? Is there ANYTHING you think I should know? Please review and I'll reply in the next chapter! Bye!


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